1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the control device for an automatic liquid handling system that automatically calculates the distribution of dispensing tips for reagent or enzymes that are used in drug metabolic experiments.
2. Description of Related Art
In the development of new drugs, this type of experiment is frequently carried out, and each experiment is involved with a large amount of work. It is therefore essential to reduce mistakes caused by human error. To this end, there is a tendency that operations depending upon human operation shift to automatic operation.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-83650, a conventional automatic test apparatus used in conducting metabolic experiments includes a three-dimensionally movable robot having a tip end on which a single dispensing probe is mounted. A vial rack with a group of four vials, a thermo-mixer, a cooling unit, and a specimen container are disposed in fixed locations and maintained in an upright position. The layout of these components can be arbitrarily changed.
The above-described apparatus is disadvantageous in that with a single dispensing probe, a number of experiments cannot be performed at high speed. Recently, microplates having wells formed in an n-by-m matrix are used instead of vials. The use of microplates reduces costs and the quantity of reagent. Recently, an automatic liquid handling system using the microplates have been proposed in which a large number of processings involved in a drug metabolic experiment can be performed at high speed. The handling system includes a robot with a dispensing head in which a plurality of dispensing tips is removably disposed in a row. When performing this type of experiment using such a handling system, the operator has to determine a suitable arrangement of the dispensing tips in a container.
At the same time, it is also necessary for the operator to calculate in advance the amount of reagent to be used in the experiment and how the reagent is to be arranged.